Psychology says the people who cry at commercials and weddings of strangers aren’t overly emotional, they spent so many years holding it together for everyone else that any borrowed permission to feel something becomes a release

The wedding is for someone she barely knows. A college acquaintance, second-tier friend group, the kind of invitation that arrives as a courtesy. She is sitting in row eleven, watching the bride’s father walk her down the aisle, and tears are running down her face before the officiant says a word. The woman next to her, a stranger, hands her a tissue without comment. Later, in the car, her partner will tease her gently about being a softie. She will laugh and agree. But she knows what actually happened in that pew...